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After looking at my goals for 2010 and checking on whether I have achieved them, I realized that I probably set myself too many goals.

I have decided to focus on building a business this year and put all the other areas of my life on automated goals. I have found that, for me, it is impossible to keep my eye on the prize if I have 8 different goals in 8 different areas of my life.

I have also not had much fun last year and really need to do things that make me feel alive again. This is consistent with my tenet of “spend time and money on what you value”. I had a less than ideal year in 2010 partly because I did not enjoy life very much, always pining for “when this happens, then I will be…”.

I have a couple of things that would really excite me, like travel; but I have been struggling to integrate them into making my dream life sustainable. I could go traveling for a year, for example, but return and be in a worse financial situation and a year older. I have decided to integrate these things into rewards for doing the things that will make my dream life sustainable. I would love to live a location independent lifestyle. Having a solid investment portfolio, a business and skills that I can apply in different locations would make this life quite possible. This year I am setting progress goals in these areas and setting heart-racing rewards as an incentive to achieve them.

– I have a website, www.mzansifinance.com that I have been busy on, but have been struggling with figure out how to position it. My goal is to reach 1,000 subscribers by the end of the year. I need to do a lot of work on designing the site and marketing it, which is a challenge I think I will enjoy. Reward: Laser eye surgery. (I don’t want to have to fish for a contact lens while swimming in the Mekong river or learning to surf in Bali)

– I would like to present 5 Financial Literacy seminars this year. Reward: Build presentation skills and a client network

– I would like to have 25 “Financial Coaching” clients this year. Reward: Experience with one-on-one guidance

– I would like to pass the Chartered Financial Analyst Level 3 exam to upgrade my professional status to “CFA pending” and pass a Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning to upgrade my professional status to “Registered Financial Planner”. Reward: Backpack Southeast Asia for 3 months. I have been dying to do this for years!

Automated goals:
These are goals that are reached automatically, when certain steps are taken, without having to focus on them intently.

Cash flow to sustain my lifestyle and fund my rewards
I think the reason 2010 was such a bust was because I did not have any money to do anything fun. I had zero social interaction in my new town, because I could not afford to go out and do anything. Reward: Cash flow to get out and have some fun!

Party once per week
I’m quite a social animal and like to go do things and meet new people. I was pretty much a recluse in 2010 for the reasons outlined above, which was a big contributing factor to make 2010 a year to forget. Reward: Meeting new people and enjoying others’ company.

Play at least 3 days of sport per week
I truly enjoyed playing cricket again, although I was a zombie for a couple of weeks until I started getting fit again. I’m aiming to start playing hockey again, when the hockey season starts. This sounds great as I love playing team sports and running around in the fresh air. Reward: Be fit and healthy and enjoy working with others towards reaching a goal.

Achieve a 6-figure net worth
I’ve been aiming to do this for a couple of years already and am yet to reach this goal. I was going well until the hit on my investments in 2008 and my unemployment in the latter part of 2009, through 2010. This is a challenging goal. It is in the automated section, because I should be able to reach it if the stock market has a good year and I spend some time, every week looking after my investments, without having to focus on the markets every day. Reward: “Big pimpin’” party night to celebrate (friends, limo’s, booze etc. You get the idea!)

I have a lot of faith that 2011 will be an extremely successful and fun year for me. I wish the same for all of you.

I always find great content on the web, while surfing and always think: “man, people should see this!”. This is the focus of the Sunday links addition – putting a spotlight on great articles I find online and showing you what sort of stuff interests me. I will aim to put a brand-new link addition on this page every Sunday

So, the 1st edition:

All of us have heard the dictum: “The most important part of a project is getting started. On iwillteachyoutoberich.com, Cal Newport writes this fascinating article about getting started vs making sure it is the right idea, before doing anything else. At the moment it seems like I have too many projects going, so this article had some personal lessons for me.

One of my biggest dreams is to be able to start my own businesses all over the world. I found this really great article on Yahoo Finance.

At Free Money Finance, two great posts about taking early semi-retirement: Part 1, Part 2.

I have been pondering the choice between buying a home, paying it off and then travelling, vs renting and travelling. At ChristianPf.com, Joe Plemon wrote a great article about the flexibility renting gives you.

I hope you get at much enjoyment as I did from these thought-provoking posts. Have a good Sunday!

I have a confession to make: I’ve done nothing for the last half year (or so it feels).Things have really been dragging along since I received the results from my last exam and it seems like I have been spinning my wheels on securing employment.

I would like turn this year around. Here are my goals for the next 2 months:

1. Finish CFA Level 3 curriculum before December 15th

2. Grow my investment portfolio by 35% for the year

3. Post 20 articles on my blogs

4. Get to the 2nd round selection of the JET program (to teach English in Japan).